Meta settlement would impose broad teen safeguards on Facebook and Instagram
Meta has agreed to an $18 billion settlement with 29 U.S. states over claims concerning children’s safety. Subject to judicial approval, the agreement would automatically apply a set of new protections to users under 18 on Instagram and Facebook in participating states and territories.
The measures include a cumulative two-hour daily limit across both apps, a default overnight access block, controls over autoplay and notifications, and new options for non-personalized feeds. Meta said most of the required controls would remain in place for 10 years.
A shared time limit across Meta’s apps
The proposed daily limit would lock teenagers out of Facebook and Instagram after two hours of combined use. Parents would be able to disable the restriction, but it would otherwise apply by default. Meta said the calculation will also account for users it detects operating multiple accounts.
The financial terms build on the state action described in Meta child-safety settlement with U.S. states, with about 30% of the settlement, or roughly $5.3 billion, contingent on YouTube and TikTok adopting the same limits. The settlement itself is set to be distributed to the states over 10 years.
Meta has also published an open letter asking TikTok and YouTube to introduce a daily time limit, overnight shutdowns, school-hour notification restrictions and prompts after 15 minutes of continuous use. The company argued that teenagers may shift to another app when restrictions apply on only one platform.
Defaults designed to reduce continuous use
Under the proposal, a default Night Mode would prevent underage users from accessing, posting to or viewing Meta’s platforms between midnight and 6 a.m. Meta already mutes notifications for teens at night, but said the new setting would block access altogether during those hours.
Teens would receive prompts after each 15 minutes of uninterrupted use on Facebook or Instagram, alongside the existing prompt triggered at 60 minutes of total daily use. Notifications would also be muted by default from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., except for direct messages and account-security or safety alerts.
Parents and guardians would be able to make a non-algorithmic feed the default experience for a teenager. Users can currently view chronological feeds temporarily, but Meta said the new option would allow a non-personalized feed to remain the default rather than returning to algorithmic recommendations when an app is reopened.
Age assurance and interaction controls
Meta said it will strengthen technology intended to identify users aged 13 to 17 who provide an adult birth date, so that the appropriate safeguards can still apply. It will also continue to default teens to private accounts, limit their interactions with accounts it considers age-inappropriate and restrict suspicious adults from contacting them.
Other changes would hide like and reaction counts by default for underage users, block extreme makeup filters and let parents and teens turn off autoplay. With autoplay disabled, viewing additional content would require a deliberate action such as a tap or swipe.
For organisations building or operating products used by minors, the settlement illustrates the practical direction of youth-safety controls: protections may need to work across accounts and services, be enabled by default, and give parents defined authority over key settings.